


You Watched Me Suffocate

by Ry (ryanssance)



Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Hanahaki Disease, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:28:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29387016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryanssance/pseuds/Ry
Summary: The reader is also a vigilante and has been in a relationship with Jason for a little while after the original Outlaws disbanded. When new members join the Outlaws, the relationship between Jason and the reader is threatened.
Relationships: Artemis of Bana-Mighdall & Bizarro (DCU) & Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall/Jason Todd, Jason Todd/Reader
Kudos: 3





	You Watched Me Suffocate

**Author's Note:**

> Hanahaki Disease is a fictional disease where the victim of unrequited or one-sided love begins to vomit or cough up the petals and flowers of a flowering plant growing in their lungs, which will eventually grow large enough to render breathing impossible if left untreated.

At the beginning, everything was... normal. It had been the two of you for a little over a year, and your relationship was stable. Well, as stable as a relationship with a touch-starved but hard-headed man suffering from PTSD would go. You never once complained though, because you had everything you could ever want or need, and you can rest assured knowing he felt the same. 

From the soft touches and lingering glances the two of you shared in front of others, to the slow kisses and quiet embraces behind closed doors, you were pleasantly satisfied with how your life was. 

Of course, sweet moments were often short-lived when the two of you were vigilantes. When Artemis of Bana-Mighdall and Bizarro, the loving hunk of clay that once belonged to Lex Luthor, ended up joining the Outlaws, things started changing. Your routinely “dates” with Red Hood in Gotham became long missions outside of your usual city. 

In the back of your mind, you had always held a tinge of jealousy and worry because Artemis was no doubt, a very beautiful person, and although you were fine in your own skin, you couldn’t help but feel the insecurity bubble up when Artemis and Jason were together. In a simply-put manner, your insecurities only deepened over time, as your thoughts become more and more paranoid. 

Although it was rather hard to decide whether to keep your thoughts to yourself or share them with Jay, you chose the latter because the two of you had a code for your relationship and disclosure, was one of them. Jason patiently listened to you while he held you in a tight embrace before reassuring you of his love, and after that, everything settled itself. 

Or so you thought... Unbeknownst to you, Jason had gone back on his once-promising words and cheated. 

“Mission is on the clock for 23:30, but I’ll be right back,” you peeked into the lab to see Bizarro tinkering away on yet another piece of gadget for the team. “I’m just going to let Jason and Artemis know.” 

Bizarro’s head snapped towards you, before standing up from his seat, but you were already walking down the hall. He had quietly walked in on Jason and Artemis once without the two knowing and ever since then, he had been torn between telling you or keeping the secret to himself. You and Jason meant the world to him, being the first two people he saw when he opened his eyes, and he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either betray Jason by telling you or betray you by keeping it a secret. For the past few weeks, he had been trying to occupy himself in order to forget, hoping Jason would come to his senses soon enough, but he hadn’t. 

It was all an accident, him catching a glimpse of the security monitor just as Jason and Artemis snuck into her room, but he saw it and now his only goal was to protect you from emotional destruction.

“[Y/N], I need your help with the transmission box before tonight’s mission.” Bizarro followed after you, trying to stop you from pursuing your hunt but his attempt failed with a “Sure ‘zaro, let me just get-” 

“No, wait!” Biz shouted, but it was too late. 

The door opened and you got a quick glimpse of Artemis and Jason sharing an intimate kiss before the two pulled away like deer caught in the headlights. His hands fell from her hips as she stood up from the table abruptly and Jason’s mouth opened agape as he stared at you. Your eyes slowly drifted from Artemis’s guilt-stricken face to Jason, and your chest tightens as the reality of the situation finally dawns on you. 

Although you had spent weeks telling yourself that this wouldn’t happen, your intuition was right after all, but this wasn’t something you had wanted to be true. With an urgent sigh, you took a glance at the tablet in your hand, “Mission is on for 23:30, you have fifty minutes before we meet in the briefing room.” 

Jason moved forward to speak, but you turned your attention to Bizzaro with a smile, “Shall we fix that transmission box, ‘Zaro?”

You started walking down the hall and Bizzaro took a quick glance at Jason, then back at your retreating form, before he in response and followed you back to the lab. 

The next few days, you completely ignored Jason, unless it was mission-related, and to continue avoiding him, you moved out from your shared room into the spare bedroom, and even spent most of your time helping Bizarro with tech or just following him around. 

“Could you pass me the needle-nose pliers, please?” Your outstretched hand beckoned for the tool as Bizarro paused on his end of the wirings to hand you what you needed. 

You muttered a thank you, before pinching the cable and coiling it back into the rubber casing. Your eyes snapped up to look at your teammate when he let out a sigh, “What’s on your mind, big guy?”

It was a question out of mannerism because there was no need for you to ask in the first place, his body language and facial features gave his thoughts away. 

With a drawn-out pause, Bizarro heaved another big sigh, “I’m sorry, [Y/N].”

Your eyebrow quirked up as you moved on to another loose wire, but shook your head with a chuckle, “If this is about Jason and Artemis, don’t be.” 

An electrical spark zapped your finger as you yanked it back with a yelp, “I could tell something was fishy with the way you tried to stop me from opening the door and to be honest, I could never be mad at you. You’ve been a great friend letting me help you with minimal tasks, and to be quite frank about the whole situation, I understand it was not your place to go sticking your nose in, so if anything, I’m thankful for all that you’ve done.” 

Bizarro sat their, hands on his knees as he stared at the ground, “Are you sure?”

You nodded as you finally sealed up the casing on the control panel before standing back up, “Seriously, let’s not talk about this. We should go train!”

And that’s just what you did for the rest of the week, which then became _weeks_. Weeks of constant distraction to halt your painful thoughts and discomfort in your chest. By the time Wednesday rolled around on your third week, your feelings finally burst. The pain in your chest became unbearable, so with a clank of your wrench falling onto the metal table and you collapsing against the wall behind you, you screamed with all your might. Tears started pouring down your sullen face as you pulled at your hair. Every inch of sadness and anger in your mind and heart came spewing out along with your wails, your tough exterior crumbling down. 

Bizarro was stunned by your random outburst but still made it to your side as you continued to sob. He rested a gentle hand on your shoulder for comfort, because he understood where this was coming from. 

“I FUCKING HATE HIM,” you screamed, but the Superman clone stayed put. “I HATE THE WAY I AM, ALL BECAUSE OF SOME-SOME GUY I USED TO LOVE-”

Your hands were pulled from your face, revealing your dishevelled hair and swollen eyes, but this was only the start of your mental breakdowns. Some might think you were overreacting, but not to you-you weren’t. There was a constant discomfort in your chest that you couldn’t pinpoint, and when missions would go awry and your pain bothered you, you would break down and cry all over again. The stress from your now-old relationship and work became too overwhelming, and for a while, you believed that was the root cause of the painful twitches and discomfort. 

It wasn’t until months later when you coughed up your first petal. 

At first, you thought it might have been something you inhaled when you were crying on your bed, but upon further examination, while everyone else was asleep, it turned out to be an orange rose petal. 

It had been tainted with mucous and nothing else. You looked it up and discovered _Hanahaki disease_. Something along the lines of unrequited love, causing flowers to grow in one’s lungs. Unless the person on the other side could prove their love to you, you would either have to get them removed or you die. Removing them meant a possibility of losing your memories of Jason as well, but no matter how much you said you hated him, a huge part of you could never let him go. Emotional sacrificial instinct, you supposed. 

So with a heavy breath and a broken heart, you quietly left the floating fortress through the quantum translocation door and went off-the-grid with a new alias, one that they wouldn’t be able to find you with. 

You have quietly tucked away in a small house in Canada, slowly coughing up more and more petals. As the months went by, your petals became full flowers. Those were the most painful ones. You constantly gasped for air, and when your coughs became too violent, you could only double over the toilet as flowers regurgitated from your lungs. 

It was a cold November night when your mind dropped its guard of your new alias, and Bizarro had transported through the quantum door, to find you on the floor wheezing and turning pink from the pressure of not being able to breathe. 

You were suffocating. 

Bizzaro quickly picked you up and rushed you through the door and back to the fortress. He tore down the hall as he brought you to the infirmary, and started doing chest compressions. The sound of his heavy footsteps woke up Jason. The head of the Outlaws followed the sound to the infirmary only to be fully woken-up by the sight of you covered in bloodied roses. 

At this stage of your disease, the once orange roses that symbolized passion and energy turned black. 

_Death._

“What’s going on?!” Jason shouted as he rushed over to you. Blood trailed down the corners of your lips as more and more petals came up, and tears slipped from your eyes. Your eyes were glazed open as you looked up at Jason, eyes begging for help.

With the use of forceps, Bizarro pulled out the flowers he could see before strapping an oxygen mask over your face.

“Give me the anesthesia,” Bizarro ordered and Jason turned around to sort through the cabinet of files. “HURRY!” 

Jason fumbled for the little bottle before handing it, along with a packaged syringe to Bizarro. One glance down at your current state and Jason paled, much like you, except there was a tinge of blue to your tone, “We’re losing them-”

“I know!” Bizarro shouted back as he finished hooking you up to the heart rate monitor and an IV bag. He quickly measured the strongest dose of anesthesia for Jason to inject, as he prepared himself.

Your heart rate started to slow, your chest stuttered, trying to grasp air even though the oxygen machine was providing ample. It was just seemingly not enough. Your eyes continued to water as your body convulsed on the cold, metal table. 

“Do you know what you’re even doing?” Jason asked, anxious as the number kept dropping on the machine. 

Bizarro couldn’t find himself to answer, so he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but all he could hear was the decline in your heartbeat. 

Jason’s continuous shouts at Bizarro became muffled, drowned out in the unsteady tone of the only thing trying to keep you alive. 

_Trying._


End file.
